A college student has removed the Denton Police Department’s badge from a social networking Web site he is using to post information from the city’s official online jail custody report.

Brian Baugh, a 21-year-old senior art photography student at the University of North Texas, displayed the badge on the Twitter account without authorization from the police department, sparking a controversy that quickly drew worldwide attention from the media.

Within a week, the number of followers on the Twitter page increased more than 130 percent.

Although the page has notation stating that it’s unofficial, police officials are concerned about the potential liability of someone posting unapproved comments that could be viewed as originating from the department, said Officer Ryan Grelle, police department spokesman.

“We weren’t looking to shut him down; the main thing is we wanted the patch down,” Grelle said. “He removed the patch, which is what we wanted.”

The police department didn’t contact Baugh directly, he said, but bloggers and media Web sites from around the world connected with him via “tweets” on the site.

Although Baugh said using the badge wasn’t against the law, he wanted to comply with the department’s request.

“I have no desire to go up against the police department,” he said. “They were getting a lot of attention they weren’t expecting, and they were afraid I would post something derogatory.”

Both Baugh and Grelle said the department never tried to shut down the Twitter site as many media reports stated.

Baugh said expedient online information services are likely to become more popular as technology continues to evolve.

“I suggest they [Denton Police Department] use all the tools available; it will be beneficial to them later,” he said.

The police department on Thursday announced the launch of its account on Facebook.

“Before all this started, we were looking to get on either Twitter or Facebook,” Grelle said. “But we just decided to go with Facebook because we can have videos and pictures of suspects.”

The department likely won’t use any other Web-based services to disseminate information anytime soon, Grelle said.

“They [social networking Web sites] come and go. It’s easier to get people on it [Facebook],” he said. “Twitter is up-and-coming, and Facebook is quite a few years old.”

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com .